For Red Sox staff, 2 heads better than 1

Credit: Christopher Evans

NO MOUND CONTROVERSY: Sox manager Bobby Valentine says he has no issue with pitching coach Bob McClure (left), even with assistant Randy Niemann on the staff.

OAKLAND, Calif. — The last time the Red Sox had two coaches for one position, it didn’t go so well.

In 2005, Mike Barnett joined the staff as a hitting instructor, working alongside hitting coach Ron Jackson.

The two would watch batting practice from opposite sides of the cage, and the tension was palpable. Barnett went way back with manager Terry Francona. Papa Jack was a holdover from Grady Little’s staff, and clearly resented Barnett’s presence.

A similar situation had every reason to unfold this season. Pitching coach Bob McClure shares no history with manager Bobby Valentine, and was already in the organization as a hybrid scout/instructor when Valentine came aboard.

Meanwhile, assistant pitching coach Randy Niemann has ties to Valentine that date to the latter’s stint as Mets manager in the 1990s.

While there have been reasons to question the McClure-Valentine pairing this season — and we’ll get to those momentarily — the relationship between McClure and Niemann has been surprisingly collegial, cordial and productive. The two share a genuine respect.

“Anytime you go into a new situation, there’s a little apprehension about how it’s going to work, but I’ve tried to do the best to make it work,” Niemann said. “Mac being a great guy really helps. He’s very secure in what he’s doing.”

The pairing of McClure and Valentine has been a little murkier. There have been reports of the two not seeing eye-to-eye, of their association not being smooth.

McClure is calm to the point of serenity when discussing the possibility he’s not “Bobby’s guy.”

“I have no animosity toward him if that’s the case,” he said. “He’s welcome to his opinion. My job here is to help the pitchers as much as I can, and whatever (Valentine) needs, I’m available. I’m not going to sit around and kiss nobody’s (butt), I’ll tell you that right now, but I’m a professional. And this is my job.

“One of my jobs is to get along with whoever is running the ballclub, because he’s the manager, and I respect that. And I believe that being a professional, you should respect that. Do we see eye-to-eye on everything? Of course not, no. Do we agree on everything? No. Would it help us if we had been together longer? I don’t know. But I have no animosity whatsoever toward what is being said or thought.”

The straight-shooting, easygoing McClure is a 60-year-old with young twins. Clubhouse politics have no place in his world view.

“Think about this,” he said. “You only have so many days on this earth to breathe. And I am certainly not going to waste a day with animosity and anger over something that No. 1, I can’t control, and No. 2 isn’t my job. To me, you’ve just wasted a day of your life. I’m 60 now, and I’m just not going to do it. There’s no sense to it. I can be a help or I can be a hindrance. And I don’t want to be a hindrance to anybody. You need something, I’m going to do it.

“There are things we still need to work on, but it’s part of getting to know each other.”

For his part, Valentine dismisses the notion of a rift as a media creation. He states unequivocally that, “I did hire (McClure) and he was my choice,” and adds that if two catchers and five infielders each merit their own specific instructors, why shouldn’t 13 pitchers have two coaches, especially if one of them is clearly the boss?

“There’s no way you show respect more to someone than to give them total autonomy to do their job without interference,” Valentine said. “That’s what Bob has. When you’re 60 years old like Bob and you’ve been in the game for 40 years, that’s exactly what you understand. You don’t have to have a conversation about it.

“If people think or want to make any kind of situation something other than it is, they’re more than welcome to do that, but the reality of the situation is Bob and Randy have worked famously well together.”

The latter portion of that statement appears beyond dispute. McClure and Niemann are cut from the same cloth, with similar personalities, and the two former left-handers share a vision of how the pitching staff should be run. Niemann, with a background as a rehab coordinator, spends a lot of his time with injured pitchers, and also tends to administrative duties.

When personal situations caused bullpen coach Gary Tuck and then McClure to leave the team, Niemann stepped right in for them.

“Very seldom does a pitching coach get a chance to bounce things off another pitching guy,” McClure said. “It’s a nice commodity to have, especially a guy that’s pitched in the big leagues, and not only that, but he knows Bobby better than I do and has a better feel for where he’s at and how he’s thinking.”

McClure has but one rule: it’s all about the message, not the messenger.

“Our thing that we’ve talked about that has to be done properly is things have to come from one thought,” McClure said. “If we’ve talked about something and he wants to express it, I don’t mind at all. The only thing I don’t want is there to be confusion with the players getting the message. And there hasn’t been any confusion.”

Added Niemann: “I told him from the beginning that the only thing I want to do is make his life easier. I’m not going to contradict anything he’s doing with anybody. If I see something maybe we could do differently, I’ll go to Mac and talk to him about it first.”

So while it’s fair to question the composition of the coaching staff and how the pieces mesh with Valentine, as far as McClure and Niemann go, their arranged marriage has proven to be a productive one.

“If Randy was a threatening person, then Bob would be threatened,” Valentine said. “Because Randy understands his job is to be as good as he can be for the team and the manager and Bob understands that’s why Randy’s here, it’s a very workable situation.”